The Wood Beyond the World | Page 3

to go ask shipmaster Geoffrey of what he
knew concerning the said ship and her alien wayfarers; but then it came
into his mind, that all this was but an imagination or dream of the day,
and that he were best to leave it untold to any. So therewith he went his
way from the water-side, and through the streets unto his father's house;
but when he was but a little way thence, and the door was before him,
him- seemed for a moment of time that he beheld those three coming
out down the steps of stone and into the street; to wit the dwarf, the
maiden, and the stately lady: but when he stood still to abide their
coming, and looked toward them, lo! there was nothing before him
save the goodly house of Bartholomew Golden, and three children and
a cur dog playing about the steps thereof, and about him were four or
five passers-by going about their business. Then was he all confused in
his mind, and knew not what to make of it, whether those whom he had
seemed to see pass aboard ship were but images of a dream, or children
of Adam in very flesh.
Howsoever, he entered the house, and found his father in the chamber,
and fell to speech with him about their matters; but for all that he loved
his father, and worshipped him as a wise and valiant man, yet at that
hour he might not hearken the words of his mouth, so much was his
mind entangled in the thought of those three, and they were ever before
his eyes, as if they had been painted on a table by the best of limners.
And of the two women he thought exceeding much, and cast no wyte
upon himself for running after the desire of strange women. For he said
to himself that he desired not either of the twain; nay, he might not tell
which of the twain, the maiden or the stately queen, were clearest to his
eyes; but sore he desired to see both of them again, and to know what
they were.
So wore the hours till the Wednesday morning, and it was time that he
should bid farewell to his father and get aboard ship; but his father led
him down to the quays and on to the Katherine, and there Walter
embraced him, not without tears and forebodings; for his heart was full.
Then presently the old man went aland; the gangway was unshipped,

the hawsers cast off; the oars of the towing-boats splashed in the dark
water, the sail fell down from the yard, and was sheeted home, and out
plunged the Katherine into the misty sea and rolled up the grey slopes,
casting abroad her ancient withal, whereon was beaten the token of
Bartholomew Golden, to wit a B and a G to the right and the left, and
thereabove a cross and a triangle rising from the midst.
Walter stood on the stern and beheld, yet more with the mind of him
than with his eyes; for it all seemed but the double of what the other
ship had done; and the thought of it as if the twain were as beads strung
on one string and led away by it into the same place, and thence to go
in the like order, and so on again and again, and never to draw nigher to
each other.
CHAPTER III
: WALTER HEARETH TIDINGS OF THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER
Fast sailed the Katherine over the seas, and nought befell to tell of,
either to herself or her crew. She came to one cheaping-town and then
to another, and so on to a third and a fourth; and at each was buying
and selling after the manner of chapmen; and Walter not only looked
on the doings of his father's folk, but lent a hand, what he might, to help
them in all matters, whether it were in seaman's craft, or in chaffer. And
the further he went and the longer the time wore, the more he was eased
of his old trouble wherein his wife and her treason had to do.
But as for the other trouble, to wit his desire and longing to come up
with those three, it yet flickered before him; and though he had not seen
them again as one sees people in the streets, and as if he might touch
them if he would, yet were their images often before his mind's eye;
and yet, as time wore, not so often, nor so troublously; and forsooth
both to those about him and to himself, he seemed as a man well healed
of his melancholy mood.
Now they left that fourth stead, and sailed over the